


O Christmas Tree

by Asterne_In_a_Sky, MidoriKurenaiYume



Series: Winter Wonderland [7]
Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dialogue, F/M, Fluff, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-06 07:44:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16828204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asterne_In_a_Sky/pseuds/Asterne_In_a_Sky, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: Being distracted after work can lead to unexpected meetings - and unexpected results.





	O Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Seventh Winter one-shot :D  
> ([here](https://agilartlogbook.tumblr.com/post/180915190195/o-christmas-tree) on tumblr)
> 
>  **Asterne_In_a_Sky** : UNDER THE MISTLETOE with Gilart ;) Do check out the drawing for the story on our tumblr page :) 
> 
> **MidoriKurenaiYume** : there's hopefully more Christmas spirit in this story than usual ;) and Christy's beautiful drawing!!!
> 
> Title: it's a Christmas song (that was also sung by Kalafina :P)  
> THEME: taking a chance.

_On the night when we meet under the mistletoe_

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Arturia didn’t make a habit of being inattentive and absent-minded, but she must have had too many thoughts running through her head after an exhausting day of work, since it would explain why she had apparently lost track of time, not to mention of her direction.

She had taken the bus as usual, she remembered that, but when she had reached her stop, she must have wandered around a bit too much. She had heard several people humming Christmas carols, but had been too tired to really take notice of them and had probably kept walking without thinking.

That was the only plausible explanation for the fact that she now found herself in the middle of the city, next to – or rather, almost underneath – one of the huge Christmas trees that decorated the square. They had done a good job in decorating this year, Arturia recognized, again a bit absent-mindedly, as she observed the countless colourful lights, the holly wreaths intermingled with small silver and golden bells and the sparkling, elegant garlands full of mistletoe.

Her long day was the reason for her current whereabouts, she had determined this; there was however no logical explanation she could think of to rationalize Gilgamesh’s presence.

She had to blink a couple of times when she spotted him, standing merely a few steps away and looking at her as if he had just noticed her as well.

When he came a little closer to her, she belatedly realized that it was extremely likely to be true, since he was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. She knew that he lived nearby, and he usually left work shortly after she did, which meant that her aimless wanderings were definitely at fault for making them meet so unexpectedly.

“I believed you weren’t interested in Christmas decorations, Arturia,” he commented slowly once he was standing next to her.

She frowned, looking from him to the beautiful Christmas trees that surrounded them, her eyes briefly lingering on the closest one.

“That’s not true,” she objected. “These decorations, for example, are beautiful.”

She didn’t find it necessary to add anything else, and firmly kept her gaze away from him.

Even though they worked at the same place and were undeniably more than simple acquaintances, Arturia tended to be detached by nature and had therefore never encouraged a closer friendship with him. Given his persistent nature, however, he hadn’t allowed that to dissuade him from paying a little more attention to her than she would have liked. Not having crossed any lines had made it so that she had eventually become used to his interest in her and decided to ‘tolerate’ it, or so she had told herself.

“This is however the first time you followed tradition and voluntarily came here just to see the decorations,” he pointed out, his raised eyebrow still in place.

When he saw her frown deepen in question, he went on, “You obviously aren’t here for shopping or to run some errands, so unless you were too distracted to realize where you were going, there is no other explanation for your presence here.”

Arturia’s eye twitched at his accurate words, and of course he noticed. A slow grin appeared on his face.

“Or maybe you were indeed too distracted,” he remarked, lips stretching in a wider smirk when he saw that she didn’t really manage to carefully keep her expression blank.

She was rather annoyed at herself because of that, which made her overlook the way he was studying her face, as he didn’t miss the signs of tiredness and fatigue, before he continued, “Since you are already here, you might as well honour other traditions too.”

His observation made sense if taken on its own, but she was definitely not going to admit it, especially since it wasn’t clear to her what he was truly trying to say. She only received an explanation when she saw his eyes flicker up and she followed them, noticing that they were lingering on the mistletoe that was so conveniently atop of her head.

And perhaps it was just an impression, but he seemed to be slightly closer to her than he was before…

Abruptly, she took two steps back, getting away from both him and the mistletoe. She was suddenly filled with the strong suspicion that he had wanted to kiss her, and she couldn’t stop herself from giving him a menacing glare.

“I don’t feel like submitting to any sort of irrational tradition,” she snapped coldly, and turned around to rapidly walk away, leaving him there alone.

Since she was no longer distracted, it didn’t take her long to get home this time. Meeting with Gilgamesh had been enough to render her irritable, and she put down her workbag with a bit more force than necessary, making her phone almost fall out of it. She rescued it with a sigh, and by turning it around she couldn’t miss the fact that the screen was lit up by a series of texts she had received.

Because of the fact that they were colleagues, she had saved Gilgamesh’s number and she immediately saw that all texts were from him. Even in her currently exhausted state, Arturia decided to try to behave like a reasonable person, and therefore began to read them.

To her surprise, they were all very respectful in tone, beginning by asking her if she was fine, and then admitting that he had noticed her fatigue and recommending she got some rest, perhaps also drank hot tea. He also suggested she watch a movie if she wasn’t too tired, and he added something close to a wish on his part, telling her he hoped she preferred timeless movies to conventional ones.

Staring at the series of texts, she realized that she may have been slightly too hasty in what she had assumed about his earlier behaviour. Whether or not he had been trying to take advantage of the mistletoe, she couldn’t say for sure; his texts made it however clear that he cared about her wellbeing more than about the chance to kiss her.

She had to admit, earlier she had been rather rude.

Her finger darted towards his name, no hesitation in her movement when she swiped on the screen to call him.

It took just a few minutes – somewhat less than she had expected – and she was already opening the door after he had rung the bell. She couldn’t help smiling slightly when she saw him, since it had just started snowing softly and he was at her doorstep, late in the evening, with his white coat and blond hair covered with small snowflakes.

She stepped aside to let him in, and wasn’t entirely surprised when he stared at her intently and brought his arms around her in an embrace.

She wasn’t opposed to it. Not this time, at least.

She still wasn’t opposed to it when he leaned into her to press his lips against hers in a soft kiss. In fact, she was probably the one who initiated it, though it was unlikely that she was going to admit it any time soon.

At least not until she had a thorough discussion with him about the importance, and perhaps the lack of importance, of Christmas traditions, together with some piping hot tea.

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